EVERSPACE 2 introduceert Stinger-klasse in eerste grote update van dit jaar

Dat EVERSPACE 2 al lange tijd in Early Access zit, is een feit wat niet te ontkennen valt. Maar door hoeveel content regelmatig wordt toegevoegd en hoe goed ontwikkelaar ROCKFISH communiceert met de community, hoor je maar weinigen daarover klagen.

Vandaag is de eerste grote content update, genaamd Stinger's Debut, van 2022 verschenen (en dat is geen grap). Spelers kunnen na het installeren hiervan genieten van een verbeterde UI, met name als het aankomt op crafting. Ook kunnen ze nu beter zien wat ze gaan minen en hun mijnactiviteiten uitplannen, de game spelen in meer talen en stoeien met nieuwe content als een nieuwe factie, perks, uitdagingen en uitrusting. De grootste toevoeging is echter de Stinger.

De Stinger-klasse is de derde light fighter class en legt de focus op het gebied van devices. Door deze goed in te zetten worden ze niet enkel door deze schepen versterkt, maar op hun buurt krijgen ook de schepen weer perks. De krachtigste daarvan is een zwerm nanobots die niet enkel een hoop schade doet op een specifiek doel, maar ook jouw schip herstelt aan de hand van hoeveel schade is gedaan. Er zijn dus meer dan genoeg redenen om dit type voertuig in jouw vloot op te nemen.

''Hoewel Stinger's Debut niet een nieuw sterrenstelsel toevoegt zoals in voorgaande updates, verdiepen toegevoegde features en substantiële veranderingen de algemene ervaring, vooral wanneer je een new game begint. We hebben een nieuwe speler data pool opgezet om de impact van deze update zijn veranderingen aan systemen als crafting, mining, ship devices en de progressiecurve te analyseren. We kunnen niet wachten om te zien hoeveel katalysatoren en blauwdrukken gevonden zullen worden en wat voor builds toppiloten zullen bedenken,'' aldus ROCKFISH CEO Michael Schade.

Een overzicht van de belangrijkste veranderingen krijg je in onderstaande video. Maar wie het nitty en gritty wil weten, kan de volledige patch notes daaronder vinden.

Features

Added text localization for various languages (work in progress)
Added new main mission and new side missions
Added new player ship class: Stinger
Added new enemy faction: Okkar Prime
Added new voice recordings (no Text-To-Speech fallbacks in version 0.8)
Added new ship modules for heavy and light player ship classes
Added new companion perk for decreasing cruise mode charge duration
Added new weapons and modules
Added new "Sustained" weapon prefix that increases energy capacity
Added new item sets
Added option to show a horizon indicator in HUD
Added an option to en- or disable pausing of the game when window is unfocused (community suggestion)
Blueprints for crafting equipment can now be found or received by dismantling the respective item multiple times
Parts, mineable resources, components and catalysts are now stored in a separate crafting inventory, no longer occupying space of cargo or storage
Crafting of components (formerly tech resources) and catalysts now possible
Mining resources has the chance of spawning the same resource in a higher rarity
Mined resources are now displayed in the location info window once the Location Scanner perk level 2 has been unlocked
Devices can now be upgraded and mastered. Upgrading increases device attributes. Mastering unlocks all device modes
UI: Added dedicated crafting tab to ingame menu
UI: Added option (toggle) to show current item level on top of the item icon within inventories
UI: Added new sorting option "SortByLevel" for cargo inventories
UI: Added total selling value info when selling multiple items at once
UI: Added ingame dialog log to the pause menu to recap the most recent conversations

Tweaks

Revised ore and crystal resources and properly distributed them among regions of all systems
Removed random spawns in the last stage of mission "The Convert"
Dialogs get aborted when involved speakers are destroyed
Improved texture streaming
Improved video ram usage
Speedward shield will now also recharge during cruise drive
Reworked Outlaw Bomb Thrower: No more invincibility shield but a fast high-capacity shield
Reworked Outlaw Bomb Thrower barrel bombs: Less damage but disable shields for a few seconds
Slightly decreased Cruise Booster's cruise mode charge duration
Improved handling of player attacking the freighter during "Picking Up The Pieces"
When having to get rid of all interfering creatures during "X Marks The Spot", a vague search area waypoint is now displayed
Combined log books 2 & 3 in "X Marks The Spot" into one and removed one "locate signal" task
Invasions will not show a warning banner anymore and often spawn farther away so that invaders do not target the player immediately
Show in marker details when hovered from further away if a pickup is needed as an ingredient for a tracked perk
Renamed Mainframe Expansion to Mainframe Component
Renamed Augment to Mainframe Expansion
"3rd Person Camera Stiffness" setting now affects linear camera lag
Limited linear camera lag to prevent player ship from leaving the screen
Ship colors and decals don't get previewed on hover/select anymore. They now only change when "equip" is pressed
Improved performance in Charybdis Bowl
Tareen now flies a ship that looks like the one he used in original Everspace
Use a new icon for debris from which drones can be spawned when flying Vindicator
Changed "Adapt Item" to "Remove Level Restriction". This modification now also costs slightly more parts
Made ship handling a little more tangible through slight tweaks in banking/inertia behavior
Changed EMP Generator "Short Circuit" mode to apply normal energy damage instead of damaging the shield only
Updated Outlaw Drone Carrier link drone visual effect
Increased Redeemer Inquisitor hull and shield HP
Outlaw Vipers are now immune to corrosion
Prevent Disintegrator from accumulating excessive backwards acceleration
"Powerful" and "Marksman" affixes can now also appear / be applied to launcher weapons
Enemies, except for Anti-Missile Drones, can no longer shoot down player missiles
Balanced prefix chances for items
Balancing: Increased probability of Elite enemies with player level
Balancing: Slightly increased Outlaw Missile Turret damage
Balancing: Increased Synchro Pulse energy consumption and spread
Balancing: Adjusted shield and armor bonuses for all ships to match late-game hull hitpoint values
Balancing: Slower leveling, less xp from lower-level enemies, less aggressive downscaling of enemies to player level
Balancing: Decreased hull hitpoint bonus gained from Structure attribute
Balancing: Increased shield capacity scaling, use same scaling for armor with lowered base values
Balancing: Increased divergence of shield and armor bonus values between ship classes
Balancing: Added two additional underside turrets to Outlaw Drone Carrier
Balancing: Outlaw Drone Carriers now spawn combat drones
Balancing: Reduced "Crit Happens" perk range from 500m to 300m
Balancing: Reduced Striker expertise scaling
Balancing: Slightly reduced Precision scaling
Balancing: Adjusted Firepower scaling curve for greater damage bonus in early game and less in late game
Balancing: Signal Decoders will now only drop from outlaw stations, some rare containers, elites and capital ships
Balancing: Slightly reduced drop chance of colors
Balancing: Increased Outlaw Drone Carrier drone respawn delay
Balancing: Reduced Raid Booster effect
Balancing: Increased Flak range and damage, reduced energy consumption
Balancing: Increased Vindicator drone damage Expertise scaling
Balancing: Increased Vindicator "Phalanx" fire rate bonus
UI: Use dedicated HUD marker icons for Ancient Rune and Ancient Rune Socket
UI: Tweaked dialog box design
UI: Show "new" highlight on freshly unlocked and not yet viewed colors and decals in customization screen
UI: Enemies currently debuffed by player receive a special offscreen indicator in HUD
UI: Show obstructed interactable and structure HUD markers with dotted outline
UI: New icons for several items
UI: Show potential resource yields instead of amount of resources mined in the location info tooltip
UI: Changed xp bar color and only show xp numbers in menus
UI: Ship stats panel was slightly redesigned and optimized
UI: Various performance improvements for item rendering
UI: New stackable item price info showing dedicated "per Item"-price as well as total stack price
UI: Overhauled design of repair and restock buttons in hangar tab
UI: Added animated background for launch action button on stations
UI: Item selection - "Other ships"-navigation now using L2R2 navigation instead of R3 cycle behavior
UI: Changed multi-sell action label from "Sell" to "SellAll" to be more precise
UI: Cooldown slot animations are synchronized now
UI: Item info widget - optimized scrolling to exclude empty space at scrollbox bottom
UI: Reduced opacity for item stack amount when maxed (community suggestion)
UI: Overhauled crafting UI/UX to support new crafting-tab and -inventory
UI: Re-added expand/collapse cargo view button in ship inventory headline
UI: The number of Device Ugrade Points and Mainframe Expansions is now displayed in yellow color if greater than 0
UI: Optimized action button caption paddings for non-hold actions

Bugfixes

Fixed bonus attributes changing their value after saving and reloading the game
Fixed Gunship Arsenal perk: Double fire rate for async weapons, double damage for sync weapons
Fixed that Vindicator Drones were attacked by neutral Outlaw Group during "The Good, The Bad & The Decent"
Fixed being able to destroy Maddocks' ship inside the storage hangar during "The Magic Of Umami"
Fixed a potential mission blocker when killing Maddocks right before reaching the end of the chase in Sato during "The Magic Of Umami"
Fixed that "Downtime Warrior" perk was not affecting secondary weapon energy on Bomber
Fixed freighter in front of Smuggler Base during "The Vortex" not having any collision
Fixed being able to use the Flying Dutchess' Beacon near Khala's Vessel during "Picking Up The Pieces" although she was already present
Fixed winding up outside of cave during "The Emissary" if loading initial auto-save and immediately creating manual save and then loading that save
Fixed NPC HUD marker being transparent after game was paused during jump-in
Fixed HUD marker "spotted" animation being stuck when game was paused during animation
Fixed wrong waypoint image and wrong player position in system view
Fixed shield and armor break effect appearing when collecting energy orbs while no armor or shield is equipped
Fixed that destroying the plating given by Dax would stop the mission from progressing
Fixed that arriving within interaction range of Spatial Bypasses always lead to the "Can't interact during conversation" message being shown
Fixed several slide doors accidentally being open
Fixed Outlaw Demolisher shooting mines from very far away
Fixed being able to fast-travel to the same location you are currently at
Fixed that the prototype and starforged prefixes lost their effect after increasing an item's rarity
Fixed that the mission log for "Gathering Dust" side mission was missing
Fixed "Repairs 3" perk not working as intended (was supposed to only repair the ship's hull up to 30% if lower when docked)
Fixed gravitational behavior of Shadow Creatures on planets when they're detached
Fixed that "Gathering Dust" side mission was available at the start of "Old Friends," not after
Fixed mouse axis inversions not working when using centered crosshair and operating system mouse position
Fixed inverted mouse controls not working when having relative mouse controls enabled
Fixed Vindicator drones sometimes not disappearing while docked
Fixed being able to track an already completed mission when double-clicking on a mission button
Fixed a problem in which it was possible that the "Spares & Scrap" mission did not start
Fixed ARC9000 explosion not damaging larger ships at certain impact angles
Fixed that mines being displayed because of a sensor bonus attribute were staying in sensor memory and were still shown at a large distance
Fixed "Downtime Warrior" perk not stacking correctly
Fixed critical hit damage using a wrong value
Fixed that item rewards for jobs couldn't be claimed
Fixed error in Temporal Nano Recompensator "Resurgence" mode description showing wrong repair increase percentage
Fixed Drone Carrier link drones not repairing carrier armor correctly
Fixed bug in repair costs calculation
Fixed implicit downsizing of (cargo) inventories in some cases. (e.g. storage)
Fixed some save and restore problems with certain objects like freight containers
Fixed a few issues with Loot screen that gets shown when not all items could be picked up
Fixed that "pull all" on pickups was sometimes not possible
Fixed that "Redeemers" name was missing in the "kills" stats
Fixed player projectiles colliding with player missiles
Fixed player Flak projectiles being triggered by player missiles/mines
Fixed NPC missiles spawning with a too large offset
UI: Fixed loss of focus after clicking quick repair and quick restock buttons
UI: Multiple improvements and fixes for screens with non-16:9 aspect ratio
UI: Fixed potential bug that repair action was available in item selection even though it isn't available on the station
UI: Fixed that shop inventory might not be sorted correctly after mission items were added to an already visited shop inventory
UI: Fixed various smaller color & alignment issues in ingame menu
UI: Fixed rebuy indicator disappearing after selling items to shop
UI: Fixed multiple bugs regarding devices in shop inventory
UI: Fixed that side-by-side info would not scroll on gamepad in case current item wasn't scrollable as well
UI: Fixed that the damaged equipment indicator wasn't refreshed after repairing
UI: Fixed mainframe expansion points animation problems
UI: Fixed homebase storage space counter not always being correct

The following changes are only relevant if you have been playing a preview of this update on the experimental branch:

Features (Experimental relevant only)

(Exp) Added one additional light fighter body module

Tweaks (Experimental relevant only)

(Exp) Balancing: Slightly reduced drop chance of blueprints
(Exp) Replaced superior kinetic damage Catalyst with rare energy damage Catalyst
(Exp) Balancing: Reduced Void Swarm repair amount
(Exp) Balancing: Tweaked some Catalyst effect values and rarities
(Exp) Worked in localization feedback from the community at crowdin.com
(Exp) UI: Catalyst slots and action buttons in catalyst selection are now clickable
(Exp) UI: Disabled catalyst selection and show info banner in case there are no compatible catalysts available
(Exp) UI: Refined catalyst modification description
(Exp) UI: Added dedicated item category icon for catalysts
(Exp) UI: Items cannot be modified anymore while they are damaged
(Exp) UI: Fully implemented reworked device appearance including upgrade animations

Bugixes (Experimental relevant only)

(Exp) Fixed that "Okkar Prime" name was missing in the "kills" stats
(Exp) Fixed that obsolete items were gone instead of replaced when loading an older savegame
(Exp) Fixed Freelancer Cargo Carrier not exploding correctly
(Exp) Common Catalysts are now always unlocked
(Exp) Swift Catalyst can now also be applied to Disintegrator
(Exp) Fixed one Stinger passive being wrongly assigned to the Scout
(Exp) Fixed Optimized and Prototype Catalysts not working on modules
(Exp) Fixed Void Swarm not resetting device cooldowns
(Exp) Fixed that obsolete Catalysts and Affixes were not removed when loading a game
(Exp) Fixed that Cruise Drive Duration perk did not unlock under certain conditions
(Exp) Fixed bug where Cruise Booster's cruise drive activation time would be overwritten by upgrading the perk
(Exp) Fixed Okkar Corvette shooting through its own geometry
(Exp) Fixed mining Catalyst bonus attributes not being removed when applying a new Catalyst
(Exp) Fixed some dialogue lines repeating during mission "The Emissary"
(Exp) UI: Fixed that the item info in the "Modify" screen could not be scrolled using a controller
(Exp) UI: Fixed that the device description text wasn't clipped properly after scrolling
(Exp) UI: Fixed overlapping descriptions in catalyst selection screen
(Exp) UI: Fixed a bug that occured after a companion was unlocked but no perks were shown
(Exp) UI: Fixed that the repair banner of an item tooltip could have elements from the device upgrade banner
(Exp) UI: Fixed a bug in which the amount of an item for sale would get bigger after buying
(Exp) UI: Fixed a bug in which the item rarity wasn't instantly updated after a modification
(Exp) UI: Fixed that the dialog board entries always showed "text-to-speech placeholder"